The following pictures show Glen's 1970 Rover 3500S which he
drove back to Pennsylvania from Wichita, Kansas in January 1996. The
car was bought new in Albuquerque, New Mexico for $5463, which was
about the same as the price of a new Cadillac at that time. The car
then went to its second owner in Santa Fe where it stayed until around
1990. The third owner lived in Denver and stored the car inside
every winter. Glen managed to contact the Denver owner by phone
and got a lot of valuable information about work that had been done
to the car, including an engine rebuild and some major part replacements.
The car next went to a real Rover fan in Wichita who had two Range
Rovers, at least four older Land Rovers, two 2000TC P6 Rover sedans,
and a second 3500S. He had several more Rover vehicles in storage
in a parking garage in the city. The car has just over 83,000
miles on the odometer, and there is virtually no rust anywhere on
the car as a result of having spent most of its life in New Mexico. The
downside of being from New Mexico is that the paint had been damaged
by the sun and buffed out repeatedly and there are some perished
rubber seals.
The pictures below show the work I've been doing in the engine
compartment. I spent days cleaning and degreasing the engine
compartment and then painted most of the areas which had originally
been black with POR-15 Chassis Paint which left a tough semi-gloss
finish. I intend to topcoat the easily accessible underhood
areas with a nice satin black after the car has been repainted just
to make it look nice and to cover up any overspray from the painting
process. I removed the radiators and had them hot tanked and repaired
as necessary. The radiator fan was replaced because it was
missing one blade. Things are very tight in front of the engine.
I pulled the intake manifold, cleaned it and repainted it because
the rubber seals at each end of the manifold gasket were leaking
slightly and because I wanted to inspect the camshaft and hydraulic
lifters. The camshaft and lifters showed very little sign of wear.
In fact, they looked brand new. At this point, I hunted down the
Denver owner who told me that the Santa Fe owner had claimed that
the engine was rebuilt at just past the 50,000 mile mark. This seems
likely to have been true based on the indications I have found.
The original light gray paint on the valve covers was in bad shape,
and I decided to strip the paint down to the cast aluminum and repaint
them. The black color is not original, but I'm very pleased
with the appearance. I lightly sanded the aluminum and painted
the covers with the Eastwood Company's satin black epoxy paint. Once
the paint had fully cured, I sanded all of the high areas of the
castings working down to a 725-grit paper which left a very smooth
surface. Finally, I coated the valve covers with a clear acrylic,
which should keep the polished aluminum from oxidizing. I really
love my valve covers.
You can remove the outer sills by simply taking out a number of
screws, and this is what you'll see. Everything is nicely exposed
for your inspection including both front and rear jacking points.
You'll also find several plugs there that you can remove if you want
to rustproof the main channels of the basic structure. I found only
a tiny bit of surface rust in this area where the factory undercoating
had dried up and flaked away. There was also some surface rust around
the two jacking points. I think the steel had flexed a tiny bit when
the car was lifted with the factory jack causing the paint to separate
from the metal. I have sealed the metal and the undercoating with
Eastwood Corroless anti-rust paint. I plan to spray some Oxisolve
and some goopy anti-rust compound into the main channels before I
close up the sills.
This view shows the front of the car with just about everything
removed. Missing are the front valance, both front fenders, the front
deck below the windshield, the hood and the front bumper. The engine
bay and front area (except for the radiator) were painted with POR15
semi-gloss anti-rust paint.
The front wheel wells were thoroughly washed with detergent after
removing any cracked undercoating and scraping out stuff like ten
years of dirt mixed with power steering fluid. I didn't want to spray
undercoating all over the front suspension and brake parts, so I
painted over the clean undercoating and some small painted metal
areas with POR15. I have found that POR15 sticks very well to the
undercoating and certainly reseals the area.
Here's a view of the front suspension. The service manual recommends
removing the fender to work in this area, and you couldn't get better
advice. The fender comes off very easily after removing four bolts
and separating a few wiring connections. When the wheel and tire
come off, you have all the room in the world. Here you can see the
horizontal front spring and the knee arm that rotates in the bushings
against the firewall as the wheel moves up and down.
This view shows the A-pillar area with the stainless trim pieces
removed. (The windshield rubber has been cut back to expose the metal
for clean-up and painting.) There was some surface rust under the
stainless rain gutter trim. The A-pillar trim covers a drainage channel
which traps leaves, sticks and dirt which block the channel and cause
rust by absorbing and retaining water.
There's an additional complication on the passenger side. Would
you believe that little plastic pipe runs all the way back to the
gas tank? Even more stuff gets stuck around that pipe. You'll find
it again if you remove the interior trim above and behind the rear
door.
Here's a view of the rear quarter. This was also in great shape
on my car. I sprayed a new layer of undercoating over what was there
after removing a few loose pieces. That valance above and behind
the rear door has three little flaps that function as the flow-through
ventilation system on this particular car. You can watch the flaps
blow outward as air exits when you shut the door. I painted the valance
area with POR15 as well even though there was no real rust here.
This view shows the back of the car with the rear deck removed.
This area traps a lot of leaves and dirt. I cleaned the area and
chipped away some deteriorated body sealer where some rust was starting.
Again, I painted with POR15 semi-gloss. You can see the hinges for
the boot lid. The metal loops running toward the center of the deck
are springs that act as a counterpoise for the boot lid. The rear
deck is a pain to remove because of the fuel filler neck. The manual
says to cut the hose connecting it to the gas tank, but I managed
to get it apart without destroying anything.
Questions or problems regarding this web site should be directed
to Stephen Beer
Copyright ©2006 RSTCA. All rights reserved.
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